Whatta Delightful Day
by Obscuris
Summary: The Delightful Father is away. So what does that mean for the children? Join the Delightful Children as they experience a day of selfreliance, nonfancy dressy outfits, learning a new language, and a quest for popularity!


Now opening: Delightful Children writing log...

Title: "Whatta Delightful Day"

Writer: Vtbots

Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door, Tom Warburton does, yadda yadda yadda.

Author's Note: The helmet kid's name is Lenny and is canon (Operation: UNDERCOVER ep); the others' names are still made-up at this time. The Delightful Children's Father does not appear in this fic, and you can insert whatever reason you like (I won't mention why since it won't matter much here). This can be read as a standalone, so for once you don't have to read my other stories. :)

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The sun rises and shines brightly as it casts away the remnants of the night. Sunlight comes streaming through the windows of households, and a large expensive mansion is no different. An alarm clock blares noisily in a bedroom and an annoyed fist forces it to shut off.

The occupant of the bed sits up and rubs his short, blond bedhair idly. Bags are under his eyes but then again bags are always under his eyes, tired or not. Somehow, the morning air relieves any signs of annoyance within him and he becomes refreshed. It is a morning that marks the beginning of a new day. A morning where morning entertainment media (aka cartoons) are to be watched.

A morning without... _him_.

The way he always behaved, especially towards him and his siblings... He feels no shame in being happy with his absence. With a smile and sigh he goes to the bathroom. After a quick shower and brushing of the teeth, he looks himself in the mirror in his blue robe and smirks, satisfied with his looks.

"Now, what shall we do today? Hmm. Some morning entertainment media over some breakfast sounds like a good start. Best get Jenkins to go make us so... wait... scratch that. Today we Delightfuls will try being more 'self-reliant.' Yes, my siblings and I shall make our own breakfast!"

So deciding on that he gets dressed in his usual Delightful clothes and goes downstairs. Looking around in both the living room and the kitchen he puts a finger to his chin. "Now where are those siblings of mine?"

Elsewhere, another Delightful is in another bathroom of the mansion, adding some polish to his football helmet. "Perfect. Just the way to start today." He puts on his helmet and now only his blue, almost emotionless eyes are visible. "Now then. I wonder what ol' blondie is up to. Probably rambling on about how he's going to defeat the Kids Next Door or whatever. Maybe we can finally convince him to give it a rest for one day."

So he goes down too with that in mind. Soon the rest of the Delightful Children follow. The thin sandy-blonde girl walks down, her usual pink bow pinker than usual. The other Delightful girl comes down her glasses asparkle, as the tall boy walks into the kitchen with his hair very nicely combed over his eyes.

They meet up with the blond boy, Brandon, and they exchange their good mornings. Then Brandon asks them to gather round, and they do.

"Now listen. I have an idea. Starting today we are going to be more self-reliant. We rely too much on other adults to do most of our things."

"That is true," states the glasses girl. "Though I prefer not having to bother with such pesky details."

The bow girl shrugs. "I actually like the sound of this self-repellant thing. I want to give it a try."

"That's 'self-reliant,' Charlene," corrects the football-helmeted kid. Charlene simply shrugs.

"As our first act of self-reliance," Brandon continues, "we shall make our own breakfast!"

"An excellent idea!" exclaims the helmet boy, wringing his hands in approval. "Our dear Naomi will do the cooking while the rest of us watch some morning cartoons that she will miss the first half hour of. Let's go."

"She will not!" frowns the glasses girl Naomi, folding her arms in front of her chest. "How about _you_ do the cooking, Lenny?"

The eyes peeping from inside the helmet suddenly change from tease to uncertainty.

"Um, I think it is best that we all cook," suggests Brandon.

"But... I'm not good at it! I have always let our adult servants do--"

"See, that is what I mean, we rely on adults too heavily. We start fending for ourselves here and now. And besides." He suddenly smirks. "If those Brats Next Door can do it, then so can we!"

"They can cook?" the hair boy asks.

"I am quite sure they do, Nathan," Naomi replies. "They've always appeared to live on their own. I believe in a recent transmission from the spy flybot I saw them pouring themselves some cereal."

Nathan remembers that and nods. "Oh, so THAT'S all we got to do."

Brandon shrugs. "Well... It's not exactly cooking. But that will have to do. Come, let us make cereal!"

And the Delightful Children From Down The Lane break up to do just that. They bring out their bowls and half of them have already gotten their cereal. Everything appears to be flowing smoothly. Unfortunately the peace only lasts for mere seconds. Brandon pours milk into his cereal. A little _too_ much milk, as is evident when the pure white liquid begins to spill from the cabinet down to the floor.

He mumbles a sheepish "Oopsie" and walks over to the paper towels, thinking to clean up the mess. He realizes he did not get there in time, because shortly afterwards Nathan the tall boy slips on the wet floor and falls on his backseat. What's even more unfortunate is that at the time he was holding an open box of cereal, and thus some of the crunchy bite-size goodness fly out and crash all over the floor. Some strike into Lenny's helmet, distracting him enough to trip and fall as well. Charlene and Naomi turn their heads to the scene, momentarily forgetting they are pouring cereal into their bowls. The entire kitchen area is filled with constant mumbles or shouts of "Oops" and "Oh no!" and the like, along with shoes crunching on the goods on the floor and near-slippings and thuds from slipping... and falling.

Finally their breakfast is complete. But the kitchen looks less like breakfast being made and more like some type of food war battle.

"It's a pigsty."

Naomi nods to her sister, fiddling with her glasses. "Even the Kids Next Door's Treehouse is neater than this. Way neater."

"But at least we have made our very own breakfast," says Brandon cheerfully. "Come. Let us eat to celebrate."

So the Delightful Children sit at a table and turn on the nearby television. After minutes of watching and polite, paceful eating one Delightful shows her uninterest with the program.

"Change the channel," says Charlene to Brandon, who has the remote. "I don't want to watch this."

"No," Brandon says simply.

"Change it."

"No."

"Change it!"

"No."

"_Change it_!"

"No."

Charlene becomes really annoyed. "Change. It."

Brandon replies in a similar tone. "N. O. No."

Charlene frowns deeply. She almost growls even, but quickly recovers and puts on a neutral face. She sits in her seat like an adult would and closes her eyes. "No, it is uncharacteristic of me to go on a hissy fit over a remote control. I will sit still and just wait until it is given to me. Yes."

Three seconds later...

...she jumps at Brandon like a javelin. Shouts of "Gimme the remote!", "Hey, that's mine!", "No you fool, it's MINE!", "I had it first!" erupt from the dust cloud of their squabbling and roughhousing. The lone Delightful Child, Naomi, simply stares and shakes her head. Finally she whistles and shouts, "Hey look! The Kids Next Door!!"

Immediately they stop and turn. "Where?"

Naomi suddenly snatches the remote from her sibling's hand and smirks as she changes the channel. They then realize what she just did and glare.

A moment later...

"So my siblings," Naomi says as the other children watch her program uninterestedly, "what shall we do today?"

Brandon suddenly hops off the couch enthusiastically and says, "Think of a way to defeat the Kids Next Door!"

"NO!" they chorus. Brandon whimpers and slowly goes back to his seat.

"We should think of something else for a change. Yes, something different," the sandy-blonde girl suggests.

The tall boy scratches under his chin. "Well... ever thought we are rather unpopular with other children?"

Lenny nods. "Come to think of it, yes."

Brandon turns to his brothers. "Well, we are adult-obeying, goody-goody, snot-nosed, prissy snobs. According to the Kids Next Door anyway."

"I don't believe holding kids captive in a stadium and forcing them to watch us eat our cake helped, either," states Naomi, adjusting her glasses. "Among other things."

Brandon takes a moment to think about this. "So we are not liked that much by other children. We have to do something about that. Hmmm. The Kids Next Door are very popular, right?"

"Yes, it was quite evident from that 'pound cake' event," says Charlene.

"Well, what if we dressed up AS them!"

The four of them instantly turn their heads and blink. "Come again?"

"Yes, Charlene can wear a long green sweatshirt! And I can shave my h... never mind."

"So what you are saying," says Naomi, "is we should dress and act like a Kid Next Door type of kid?"

"That is about the gist of it, yes."

Naomi's face falters with reluctance. "I don't know. I'm not sure I can bear to act like such... filthy rebellious runts."

"We won't necessarily have to be runts," Lenny says.

"So we have to be filthy rebels?" Charlene asks. She rubs her arm, looking concerned herself. "Um... that doesn't sound right."

Brandon sighs and slaps his hand to his face. "Fine, we can be CLEAN. But we DO have to be rebellious." Then, suddenly getting excited, he adds, "And then we can show the Kids Next Door that we can do anything they can, and _better_! Ha ha. Haaaaa ha ha ha ha!"

"We are not competing with them today!" the other four yell surrounding him. Brandon shrinks and whimpers.

The Delightfuls dig through their closets and dresser drawers, finding something, anything, that would match the style of clothing their counterparts wear. Unfortunately, suits and sailorgirl outfits and other such fancy dressy clothes are something the Kids Next Door would probably _not_ find themselves wearing normally. Father never did give them a wide enough selection of clothing. So the Delightful Children grab some money and exit the mansion towards the direction of the stores area of the Suburbia.

While the Delightful Children From Down The Lane walk down the sidewalk to the nearest clothing store, five other children are walking in the same sidewalk in the opposite direction.

"See, now gettin' your own comics wasn't so hard, was it?" Numbuh Four smirks at Numbuh Five. "An' I didn't hafta touch that stupid yucky girly magazine of yours, either!"

"Heh. The only reason I'm gettin' it this week is 'cause I've been waitin' for this particular edition and I don't want no stupid whiny boy to screw it all up," Numbuh Five counters with a smirk.

"Ouch," Two remarks, who gets a glare from his blond friend.

Numbuh Three sees the leader of the group staring down at the ground, sighing. "What'sa matter, Numbuh One?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Just bored I suppose. I want a new mission! The Delightful Children have been a bit quiet lately, too. What's with them?"

"Um, Numbuh One..."

"I mean, is it so hard to build another big machine and terrorize the Treehouse like always?"

"Numbuh One..."

"Or why couldn't they like, send some type of letter gloating about how they're better and that they can beat us?" the commander continues, seemingly ignoring his friends as he still walks on.

"Numbuh One!"

"Or how about... OOOF!"

His sunglasses nearly fall off after bumping into something in his way. Or rather, someone in his way. He looks up to see the blond boy along with the rest of the Delightful Children. He is almost glad to see them, but he can't let them know that. So he frowns and, fixing his glasses, exclaims, "Watch where you going you adult-suck-up dorks!"

"Funny. You were the one who bumped into _us_, you adult-disobeying fool," the Delightfuls retort. They begin to walk around them and continue towards their destination.

"Where do ya think you're going?" Numbuh Four calls after them.

"Wherever we please," they chorus in their monotone, not bothering to look back much less stop. "We will play with you some other time. We have other matters to attend to. Good day."

The opposite team watch after them puzzled for a moment, but they shrug it off and continue their conversation towards the Treehouse.

The Delightful Children From Down The Lane enter the clothing store. The moment they step foot in there, however, they are greeted by a few... fans of theirs.

"Oh no! It's those kids who wouldn't share their cake with me!" says a boy, tugging on his mother's pants.

"They're the same meanies who tried to 'delightfulitize' me and make me wear itchy tight clothes!" grumbles a grouchy boy nearby.

"They... tied me to a chair... and, and I had to watch them eat cake all by themselves, and... and couldn't move or go anywhere, so 'cuza them I... I needed a new pair of shooooorts!" cries a little curly red-headed girl.

The Delightfuls appear to shrink in size as all the involved kids lock very unhappy glares at them. They slowly, nervously, and silently walk around them, making gestures to say that they are not here to force them into another party, and instead to buy new clothes. That hardly appeases them, however they huff and turn or walk away from the adult-obeyers.

"We REALLY need to become more popular now," they say to themselves.

The boys and the girls of the group split up to their respective sections. The boys check out various clothing while Brandon pretends to be like a judge. Lenny pulls out a tie-dye shirt and pants.

"Too... colorful and kind of girly," Brandon says.

Nathan shows off a suit jacket and pants.

"We are not supposed to be wearing something 'dressy,' " the blond replies again.

Nathan and Lenny both show him a red sweater with gray shorts, and even somehow manage to pull out brown boots.

"You've got to be kidding!" Brandon laughs incredulously.

Meanwhile at the Delightful girls' area, with Charlene's complaints of some making her look 'dirty' or 'un-Delightful' and Naomi's similar claims along with a few making her 'look fat,' they are having their own difficulties picking out casual clothing. The five of them eventually meet up again to tell their tale of woe and uneasiness, and then finally they decide to forget it and wear whatever, just as long as it's something a Kid Next Door would wear. They want to become popular with other kids as quickly as possible. So they agree to that and pick out any good-looking clothing with little complaints, and then march to their respective fitting rooms. Satisfied with their selection, they purchase them and return home. And then they reemerge from the mansion's front door as very casual and very different-looking Delightful Children.

The tall boy wears a blue shirt with a printed peace symbol on the torso and several tie-dyish colors at the hem, darker blue pants and shoes. The football helmet kid wears a red jersey with white font that says "Lenny 0," and black pants and sneakers. The glasses girl has on something similar to her normal schoolgirl Delightful clothes, except it is mostly black and the ends are not frilly-looking, and she is wearing black gloves with the tips missing, exposing the ends of her fingers. While she still has on her glasses her pigtail braids are down instead of sticking up. The sandy blonde girl, still with her bow, has on a small rosy-pink short-sleeved shirt with navy-blue shorts and sandals. She is also wearing a leather jacket with black sunglasses and appears to be chewing on something. And finally, the blond boy sports a white shirt stating "I R KOOL" and blue shorts and sneakers. (They are actually his Delightful shorts but he says that "the rest of the clothes negate the Delightfulness or something.") His casualwear is complete with a blue jacket, the same color as his shorts.

Well, not quite complete. In a slow, dramatic motion he produces half-moon sunshades, opens them up and slowly puts them on. He grins as the brief sparkle on the glasses and ching sound effect inevitably follow.

"Onward!" chorus the five children, "to our quest for popularity!"

They barely run a yard though before their faces meet the ground.

"In the future when we make dramatic exits, we should remember to watch out for trippable obstacles," groans Brandon. A bubblegum expands from Charlene's mouth before it pops and splatters on her face.

The Delightfuls venture back towards the street in their new outfits. Charlene blows another bubble and it splatters over her face again. "I can't seem to do it right..." she grumbles, picking the sticky stuff from her face back to her mouth for another series of chewing.

"Wait," Brandon halts the group. "I think we are supposed to put our hands in our pockets. That's something 'cool' kids do quite often." So they walk on with their hands in their pockets. But then he halts the group again. "Our faces look too neutral. I believe that 'cool' kids are supposed to have mean, angry, tough looks on their faces."

So each of the five children make their faces look mean, angry and tough. But since Lenny's face is hidden in the helmet the most anyone sees is angry-looking eyes. Kid-aged passerbyers stare at the strange-faced children and then giggle when they are out of vision range.

"This isn't working," says Nathan after minutes of walking around with the exact same expression.

"My face hurts," Charlene complains.

"Mine too," says Lenny.

"How long must we keep this up, Brandon?" asks Naomi.

"Not any longer. Let's drop it." And the Delightful Children revert their faces to normal, relieved sighs escaping their lips as they rub their sore cheeks. "That was annoying. I wonder how they do it."

"I do not know about you, but I certainly hope the Kids Next Door do not see us like this. That would be embarrassing." The others gesture in angreement. "Perhaps we should hurry and try to play with or even make friends with other children. The 'cool' kind of children. That should help us in becoming more popular quickly."

"Good idea, Naomi. But where can we find such children?"

Soon enough they find a group of kids around their age gathered near an alley. A radio nearby is playing heavy metal music. Two of the kids appear to be squaring off in portable videogame systems. The Delightful Children meet up with them and, simultaneously, they say, "Greetings fellow children. May we join you in your time of play?"

"... Say what?" says a boy.

"Do ya hafta talk like that?" frowns a girl, changing the tuning of her radio.

"You look oddly familiar..." says one older boy wearing glasses with no lens.

The Delightful Children look to each other. Their style of talking and politeness will not get through to them. In order to have successful communication, they cannot speak the way they usually speak. They have to talk what they believe how some 'cool' kids talk.

So Brandon steps forward, looking a bit nervous. "Um, what we mean to say is, um... is it okay if we... 'hang out' with... y'all?"

"Yes," says Naomi. "Um, I mean, yeah. We... want to, I mean wanna... kill time playing with you all, er, y'all."

"With you cool dudes," says Nathan with a peace sign. He blinks behind his hair when he realizes what he just said.

"Uh-huh," nods Lenny.

Charlene shyly raises a fist. "... Yo."

A moment of silence. The kids look to each other for several seconds. Then they roll on the ground laughing. The Delightful Children blink, wondering what is so funny. One of the kids recovers and, still snickering, tells them.

"Give us a break." The boy wearing glasses with no lens snatches Brandon's and Charlene's sunglasses. They try to reach for their possessions but the boy keeps them out of reach. "The Delightful Children From Down The Lane, I _thought_ you looked familiar. What are you doing, trying to get us to hang out with you so we can fall for another one of your tricks?"

"And look at their get-up!" exclaims a girl as the other kids in the group burst into snickers.

"Hey. That is not amusing. Why do you insult us so?" frowns Brandon. Then he corrects himself, "I mean, that... ain't funny. Why... you be joking us?"

"Yes, I mean yeah, we ain't not messing around, we jus' wanna play with y'all cool children, I mean kids, uh-huh, joking not we are." Naomi shudders, unbelieving that such an atrociously grammatically-incorrect sentence escaped her lips.

"Like, can't we play, dudes?" asks Nathan, wondering how he said that so easily.

"We would be honored... Er, we'd be... 'down' with that... I guess," says Lenny.

"Yo, yo," Charlene says simply.

But the group just laughs harder, the two videogame players rolling on the ground and nearly breaking their portable game systems in the process. "Why're you talkin' like that!?" one of them laughs. "It doesn't sound right comin' from you!"

The girl, too, laughs loudly. "Like we'd ever wanna play with _you_ dorky snobs anyway, after the stuff you've done to other kids. Come on, y'all, let's go before they force us to eat gallons of broccoli or sumthin'!"

The bespectacled boy tosses the two sunglasses back to their respective owners before he and the rest of the group leave in a fit of laughter. The down children stare after them a minute until they notice the radio is still on the ground. Brandon picks it up and changes the tuning randomly until elevator type music plays. The Delightfuls smile as they enjoy the tune and their possible new possession. That is until the girl returns, snatches it from them, changes the tuning back to heavy metal, and sticks her tongue at them before walking off with her nose high in the air.

"That went well," sneers Lenny.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," states Charlene, blowing another bubblegum before it pops over her face again. She sighs exasperatedly.

"Come on, siblings," says the frontmost blond Delightful. "We have to try. Maybe other kids would want to... 'hang out' with us."

So the Delightful Children go from place to place, corner to corner, looking to fit in with other kids in their goal to become more popular than their archrivals. Nathan finds a group of young kids similarly dressed as he, so he and his siblings try hanging around the group. Unfortunately they are some of the same kids who were tied up in the stadium when the Delightful Children attacked the Kids Next Door with a cake monster. So the kids snuff them and walk away with one boy saying "Peace brothers and sisters, whom I am glad are not really my brothers and sisters."

Naomi has no luck with the popularity-gaining as well. A random boy walks up behind her and insults her size, her wearing glasses, and her manner of speaking for an entire two minutes. She finally responds with the back of her fist.

Several getting-laughed-outs, unflattering comments, boo'd-aways from being recognized as the Delightful Children, and unsuccessful bubblegum pops later, the Delightful Children are beginning to lose hope. Stressed and frustrated, the Delightful Children From Down The Lane walk down the sidewalk. What is significant about this neighborhood is that it is the same neighborhood where the Kids Next Door reside. Unfortunately, this neighborhood is also the quickest way to get back home.

As they murmur to themselves how bad this day is, a random car speeds by splashing the water on the ground all over them. Stressed, frustrated, totally annoyed and wet, they grumble for a moment before continuing. They soon near the Treehouse. They start walking faster. Maybe if they pass it fast enough, the Kids Next Door won't notice them...

"Ha ha, you lose!" Numbuh Two laughs victoriously, as a bummed Numbuh Four views his fallen fighter with the words "PLAYER 1 WINS" flashing over the other fighter on the screen. "So that means you owe me a cup of orange soda!"

"Yeah, yeah. Be right back."

As Numbuh Four heads into the kitchen he passes by the window. He casually looks out for a second and keeps on walking. But then he stops and speeds right back to the window. His eyes widen at the sight. And then he finds himself trying his hardest not to burst into a fit of laughter.

"Hey guys! Check this out!"

"I suppose our day cannot get any worse," the five stressed children state together. Then suddenly they hear giggles. Loud giggles. Familiar giggles. They slowly look up, towards the Treehouse. And there they are, all of them, at the window, pointing and snickering at the poor children on the ground.

"Aw man, this is TOO rich!" laughs the Aussie.

"They look so FUNNY! I HAVE to get my camera!" squeals a very excited Numbuh Three as she hops away. The Delightfuls hide their faces as they quickly think up a way to get out of this predictament.

"Why are _you_, the Delightful Children From Down The Lane of all people, wearing such clothes as that??" snickers a highly-amused Numbuh One.

"Hey you, the one who's been seriously needing a haircut!" shouts Numbuh Two. "What are you supposed to be, some kinda hippie or something!?"

"I never thought I'd see that girl with the glasses wearing somethin' that's suppos'ta look cool," smirks Numbuh Five, shaking her head. "You'd think she'd be in a worm costume with a huge book."

"Silence, Fools Next Door!" shout the indignant children. But Numbuh Three emerges with the camera and takes several shots of them while in a giggle fit. The Delightfuls try to shield their faces again.

"Man, this is one of the few times I'm GLAD to see you dorks!" snickers a calming Numbuh Four. "You made my day, big time!"

"Grrrrr. For your information, this is... uh... part of our plan to... destroy you! Yes, that's it! And now we are... going home to... refine that plan! See ya latuh, suckas!" And with that the Delightful Children take off in unbelievable speeds.

"Did they just say, 'see ya latuh, suckas'?" asks Numbuh Two.

"As we have always observed, they keep getting weirder and weirder," says Numbuh One.

Numbuh Three giggles as she looks at her handful of valuable photos. "Hehe, I kinda thought that short blond boy looked cute."

Everyone stares at her.

"Which short blond boy?" Four asks.

"That was so embarrassing!" exclaims Naomi stomping into the mansion.

"I don't think the Kids Next Door would look at us the same way for a while," the helmet kid says.

"Well, at least we're finally home," sighs Brandon as he removes his shades. But when the Delightfuls stop at the kitchen to get a quick snack, they discover it a mess. A mess that's been there since this morning.

"We forgot about this kitchen!" Charlene frowns, frustratedly taking off her sunglasses and putting her hands on her hips. "Perhaps we should call some adult maids or something to clean this up."

Brandon shakes his head. "We forget, we are supposed to be self-reliant today. We must clean this up ourselves."

The Delightful Children sigh, nod, and split up to gather their cleaning equipment. Nathan and Lenny are the sweepers, and Brandon, Charlene and Naomi have cabinet-cleaning duties. Of course, with this being one of the rare times, if ever, of them cleaning up a room other than their bedrooms by themselves, they do not go without some trouble.

Nathan and Lenny get a bit annoyed when Brandon accidently wipes some of the bits of cereal on the cabinet down to the floor. As a small measure of payback, the two pick them back up and spread it all over the cabinet Brandon is wiping. Brandon frowns as the two brothers stick their tongue out and continue sweeping. Brandon sighs as he wipes the cereal pieces to his hand instead.

When the time finally comes for the Delightful Children to mop the floor, they each get a mop and wipe all over the place. But Charlene, still chewing on her bubblegum, pops another bubble which, of course, splats back to her face. Her momentary stun is enough to make her slip on an already mopped part of the floor and she falls on her rear-end. The mop itself flies out of her hand and the rope end falls directly on her head, giving her the look of a white-haired old lady. Her siblings burst into giggles as she simply crosses her arms and 'humph's. But then she smiles as well.

Finally, the kitchen is cleaned and the exhausted Delightful Children From Down The Lane collectively flop on the living room couch. They look to their watches. It seems it didn't take them as long as they thought it would. Two hours.

"It looks like our plan to become more popular than the Kids Next Door has failed, Brandon," sighs Charlene.

"Yes, we haven't had a good day at all," agrees Lenny.

"I can still remember every detail of it," says Nathan. "Like when Brandon accidently spilling milk on the floor and I slipped and fell on my bu-- rear-end."

"Yeah. So did I when the cereal you were holding hit my face," Jason remembers.

"You two looked quite silly," Charlene smiles.

"... We did, didn't we?" Lenny and Nathan smile as well.

"Hey Charlene, you remember when we were looking at them we poured too much cereal in our bowls?" asks Naomi, surpressing a giggle.

"Yes. We made quite a mess!" chuckles the bow-wearing girl.

Brandon nods and smiles. "I'm the one who suggested the popularity plan, and we all know what happened from there."

"Talking like those kids in that group. That had to sound so strange from us," says Naomi.

"And I made a peace sign. A peace sign!" exclaims Nathan before snickering.

"I liked when Naomi punched that kid's lights out," says Lenny. "I almost laughed out loud when he cried to his mother."

"Oh, but what about on our way home?" Brandon reminds them. "That passing car made us soaking wet, and to top it all off the Kids Next Door saw us like this!"

"Heh, I wanted to crawl under a rock," says Charlene.

"Well, if you think about how we must have looked in their point of view, we had to look kind of funny."

The Delightfuls think about that for a moment and then laugh.

"Hey! You're right, we did look silly," agrees Naomi.

"And I can't believe it took us only two hours to clean up that entire kitchen," nods Lenny.

The Delightful Children sigh and lean back on their couch.

"You know. When you think about it, our day wasn't so bad after all."

"I think Lenny is right," Charlene nods. "Despite things not quite going our way, I must admit that it was fun."

"Right. And... you know what? Let's forget about popularity," announces Brandon as he sits up. "I doubt it matters much, anyway. We are better than the Kids Next Door in other ways. Like technology, money, and intelligence."

"And I have to admit that this day would not be so exciting without you, brothers and sister," Naomi nods.

Nathan nods. "This has been a delightful day indeed."

Charlene nods and blows another bubble. Everyone expects to see gum on her face again but when it pops it only lands on her lips. She smiles excitedly as she finally is able to pop it the correct way. "Let's have a group hug as the perfect end to this day," she suggests.

So the Delightful Children From Down The Lane hug each other. They let this be a big reminder that no matter how popular they are with other chilren, no matter the hardships of relying on themselves than other adults, and no matter how many times they are defeated by the Kids Next Door, as long as they remember that they have each other none of those things would bug them. That much.

"So," says Brandon. "Can we go defeat the Kids Next Door now?"

"NO!!"

Brandon shrinks and whimpers.

END WRITING LOG


End file.
